Toward a learning behavior tracking methodology for CA-for-SLA

This paper is principally about methodology. It first summarizes five issues in the emerging research agenda of conversation analysis-for-second language acquisition (CA-for-SLA), and develops empirically based analyses of classroom talk that occurs over several days and months to illustrate how a longitudinal learning behavior tracking (LBT) methodology for CA-for-SLA works. LBT has two components: Learning object tracking (LOT) and learning process tracking (LPT). LOT involves tracking when participants deploy potential learning objects within a single conversation and in subsequent speech events. LPT involves carrying out conversation analyses of participants' emerging grammar to understand how they orient to learning objects as resources for doing language learning behaviors that occur both in the moment and over time. The paper concludes with an overview of the methodological strengths and weaknesses of LBT.